Hui Feradyun
A true ruler is one who cares for their people in times of need. Who sacrifices their food to the hungry. Who dresses frugally in times of hardship. Who laughs loud in times of peace. Who is just in all actions. Who is kind to friends and forgiving to enemies. That is the way of a true ruler. - Hui Feradyun Hui Feradyun (Heavenly Common: 惠福云), style name Kaixin (Heavenly Common: 开心）is a local hero within the rural prefectures of Dongxi Lu. Born a humble peasant, Feradyun first gained fame within their prefecture of Xiaocheng as a kind and generous cobbler. After forming an oath of brotherhood with three of his friends, Feradyun swore that they would all bring great change to Dongxi Lu and help it become a state worthy of the Sage Kings of old. To that end, Feradyun and their comrades have set out as scholars and soldiers of fortune, offering their services to abused peasants and ignored bureaucrats alike. They have since become known as The Order of the Plum Blossom and have caused great confusion for the government of Dongxi Lu, who do not know whether to see them as heroes of the state or potential rebels and heretics. Early Life Born in the backwater Xiaocheng Prefecture as the middle child in a family of farmers, Feradyun stood out from their siblings at an early age when they accidentally pulled a copy of The Dialogues of Ahurmazd down from the cabinet while reaching for a sweet bun. The book opened to a page describing the beauties of universal love and the desire to create peace for All Under Heaven. They quickly read the rest of the book as best as they could. Entranced by this, Feradyun begged their parents send them to school so that they could learn to read and write properly. Their parents, realizing that their child seemed to be bad at anything other than reading and reciting The Dialogues. At the local school, Feradyun earned a reputation as a strong minded and sensitive student, spending hours helping their fellow students better understand the Ten Classics of Truth. In their spare time, Feradyun used whatever paper they could find to write commentaries on the Classics and heavily annotated their copy of the books. To support their studies, their family worked tirelessly to raise enough money to keep Feradyun in school. Feradyun responded to this by returning two thirds of all the food and money their family sent to them, saying that as their family, they needed it more. At 14, they graduated the school two years in advance only to be struck by a tragedy. Their younger sister, Hui Mei, was conscripted to the Imperial Army as part of the Allotment System and their father, Hui Zhi died of exhaustion while tilling the fields. Feradyun put their studies on hold and decided to search for a job to support their family, now that only two of their family remained at the farm. While Feradyun was never the strongest or biggest person, they were agile and good with their hands due to all their writing. As such, they decided to become a cobbler. Feradyun worked day and night to make shoes and sandals that would be comfortable and longlasting for all those in the prefecture. They used what money they got to send back to their family, give to any beggar they saw, and buy more books to study. They became famous for frequently espousing wisdom from the Classics and interpretations of the Classics to their customers, much to their bemusement. The Fellowship After ten years of tireless work as a cobbler, Feradyun had an encounter that would change their life forever. While walking through the town centre, selling their wares, they ran into a dwarf the same age as them as the two were eying a promotion for the upcoming Imperial Civil Service Examinations. The dwarf introduced herself as Bahar Danyal, a shepherd and pig farmer lived just outside of Xiaocheng and invited Feradyun to join her for a drink at the inn. As they walked to the inn, Bahar introduced Feradyun to an old friend of hers by the name of Jie Soroush, a former farmer and smuggler. As the three sat down to drink, with Jie pulling out a Jinghu for music, they began to discuss their lives. Bahar had come into town after hearing about the civil service examination with the intention of offering herself as a bodyguard to any prospective traveller to the Prefecture Capital and Soroush was joining for the sake of it. As they chatted, the tallest person anyone had ever seen entered the room. And to make things more things more uncomfortable, she was an aasimar, a humanoid behemoth of celestial origin standing at over 7'5 ft.Seeing that the inn was full and most people seemed to be afraid of her due to her height and status as a "barbarian", she turned to leave when Feradyun, Soroush and Bahar invited her to join them. Surprised by this kindness, she joined them at their table and introduced herself as Ming Nuan, style Tang Zhi, and that she was a vagabond and traveller who was on the run after killing a corrupt official who had bullied her village to the point of ruin. The four sank, sang, and discussed philosophy throughout the day and into the night. Each seemed to have a different philosophy of choice. Ming Nuan was a follower of Turani, a poet and philosopher known for arguing for the inherent goodness of humanity and need for people to govern themselves as collective equals. Soroush was a follower of the teachings of Fei Guan, known as the Gardener, who believed that all religions and philosophies were bled into each other in a linear fashion and that one must be willing to view other thoughts as legitimate and accept aspects of their teaching into one's own (the Gardener's own belief was that all humans were spiritually equal, but only those who cultivated the mind and acted in a moral and just way were closer to the gods and the Truth). And Bahar was a follower of Zhi Meng, who believed that one should govern oneself based on that which would bring the most good to the most people and avoid that which would bring bad to people. After much debate, they found that in many ways none of them had the True Path to enlightenment and that they all had the true path, as each idea was merely one spoke in a great wheel or one possible path that led to the same destination. The next day, Feradyun convinced them to swear an oath of Fellowship, so that they would be family. Meeting in Bahar's plum garden, the four swore an oath to protect All Under Heaven and to be true and loyal to one another. They then set out a plan to create the ideal state, where all philosophies would accepted and the government would seek to incorporate the best and most beneficial ideas from each school of thought for the benefit of others. The Examination Following the oath, Feradyun declared their intention to go to the Prefecture Capital to take part in the Civil Service Examination. The other three fellows agreed to accompany them along their journey, for fear of bandits. All pitched in what money they had to finance Feradyun and register them for the exam. Fortunately, the journey was largely without problem. When they arrived, Feradyun left to go to the dormitories of all prospective officials. For four days, the three heard nothing from their friend until the first day of the exam came when they discovered Feradyun had ranked in the top ten of that section. The three responded by celebrating and partying at the local inn. This continued for two more days until the final day of the exam. As they sat in the Inn, nursing a hangover from the earlier night, a messenger arrived asking if they had seen Feradyun, as they had not arrived at the Examination Centre. Fearing for their friend, the three ran to the dormitories, which they were barred from by the guards and forced them to wait till the exam had finished. Bahar swiftly beat up the guards and the three ran to Feradyun's room, where they discovered their friend badly beaten, bound, gagged, and unconscious and all their books and notes burned. After Ming Nuan freed and woke Feradyun, they revealed that they had been attacked by goons of the Prefect's son and several local nobles (who had all bribed their way into the exams) who felt threatened by the success of this peasant upstart and wished to eliminate the competition. Bahar, filled with rage, suggested immediately attacking the villains who had done this but Feradyun responded that it would be better wait and allow the proper authorities deal with this crime and that she must place her faith in the goodness of the ministers to bring justice to those who were cruel. Unfortunately, justice was not to be found and instead those who had attacked Feradyun passed the exam and received local magisterial positions. Feradyun continued to advise caution and patience until they finally broke down in tears, their dream seemingly shattered, and fell into a catatonic state. They remained this way for two days before speaking again. They announced to their friends that it was now up to them to make their ideal state a reality. The Formation of The Order of the Plum Blossom Returning to their home village, Feradyun and their friends began to form a militia in order to protect the village from bandits and to ensure that laws are enforced fairly and justly on behalf of the people. Feradyun drafts a memorial dictating their ideals and plans. The local magistrate, an old friend of Feradyun's family named Hong Bai, supports them in this endeavour and declares their actions to be legal. Their actions remained unnoticed for two years until a very powerful bandit chief, a Goliath named An Guiying led his army to attack the village. In preparation for this, the local blacksmith and a friend of Feradyun's brother, Li Minu, forged each of the friends a weapon for the upcoming battle. An eccentric inventor and a mystic, Minu infused each weapon with spells and charms based on The Book of Changes so that they would better serve them. For Bahar, she forged a fine ox-headed warhammer. Bahar called the hammer She Yao Shang or Serpent Bane (蛇咬伤). For Ming Nuan, she forged a mighty halberd. Ming Nuan named her halberd Juhau Long or Chrysanthemum Dragon (菊花龙). And for Feradyun, she forged a mighty broad sword and a great spear. Feradyun called the spear Renci de Ren or Bringer of Benevolence (仁慈的人) and the sword Emo Zhuanhuan Qi or That Which Saves Demons or Demon Converter (恶魔转换器). Soroush turned down her offer, stating that he was content with his hickory bow and a simple sword. Not wanting to be snubbed, Minu forged for him a fine suit of armour and crafted a guiding scope for his bow, as well as various different types of empowered arrows. Minu also forged swords for the others, though considered them to be her most basic work. Feradyun, their friends, and the militia swiftly defeated An Guiying in a series of ambushes that resulted in minimal bloodshed on all sides. After capturing An Guiying, the bandit chief revealed that he was merely seeking to protect his people and that he was specifically attacking one of the new magistrates who had beaten Feradyun. This magistrate had horrifically abused his power, creating overly harsh laws, taxing and oppressing the "barbarian races", and wasting the treasury on expanding his mansion. After some persuasion from Ming Huan, Feradyun released An Guiying and ordered to swear never to harm an innocent again and to serve in the Plum Garden Fellowship along with all of his bandits. An Guiying agreed and befriended Feradyun. This alliance caused the Fellowship's ranks to grow from 170 farmers and peasants to an army of 7000 former bandits. The Fellowship then marched on the local Magisterial City and demanded that they hand over the corrupt magistrate. After a short skirmish with the guards, the magistrate agreed, and Feradyun ordered that he be thrown in prison for all of his crimes. However, the magistrate had written his father and the Divine Court about this, who had responded by sending 40,000 soldiers to defeat the Order. When the army arrived, Feradyun surrendered themself to the general, Shahriar Zubin the Minister of Justice, and pleaded their case to the Minister. Feradyun argued that the magistrate had betrayed his duties and had lost the right to be called a magistrate and was thus a criminal. After much deliberation, Minister Zubin released Feradyun under the warning that the Order must swear alliegence to the Divine Court or be punished as rebels. Feradyun agreed and the magistrate was handed over to Minister Zubin for trial at the Divine North Star Capital. Following this, Feradyun and the Fellowship returned to Xiaocheng to a hero's welcome, but all knew that it was only a matter of time before the Emperor and the Court changed their minds. In the mean time though, the Order spends their time helping out the villagers of Xiaocheng with odd jobs, acting as peacekeepers and assistant farmers and craftsfolk. In addition, Feradyun and their fellows have issued that the Order must practice martial art and weapons training in the case of war and to help protect the populace from banditry. Mostly recently, Feradyun's younger sister Hui Mei has returned from her service in the Divine Imperial Army and joined her older sibling as a lieutenant in the Order, much to Feradyun's delight. With new recruits, a mixture of reformed bandits, farmers, the marginalized, and young scholars who had failed the Civil Service Exam, the Order has grown to 9,000 strong and is effectively the police force of the whole Prefecture.